Scar of Memories
by JoBrosFan2808
Summary: I used to be good friends with the Jonas family, until one of them betrayed me. But after several years, I had the unpleasant surprise of encountering them once again...but will trouble ensue when I begin to unravel Nick's secrets?
1. Preface

Hey, guys. So, 6 months ago, this story was removed. I was really upset, because it got about 200 reviews, the most I had ever gotten on any story. However, being me, I decided to repost it. If it gets taken down again, I also published Scar of Memories on the Jonas FanFiction Website (the link is on my profile page). So in conclusion...enjoy!!!!

**Preface**

I sat on the sand looking at the waves lap quietly onto the beach. There weren't any sounds; just the occasional cry of a seagull and the ocean moving, but other than that, there was silence. It was sunset, and the sky was filled with numerous different colors, and I'm sure that if I had been looking at it, it was beautiful. But since I wasn't, I had no idea what anything was like surrounding me; I was just sitting quietly on the sand, holding my knees close to me, deep in thought.

For a 20-year-old, I am far too innocent and unaware of the world around me. I have witnessed too many lies to know what the truth was, I have taken too many chances to know what a sacrifice was, I have made too many mistakes to even learn from, and I have dreamed too many fantasies to know what reality was. And it was only just 7 hours ago that I realized that for me, it was all of the above.

I had sat on the beach for a total of 7 hours, just thinking. And in the end, all if really seemed to be was confusion. Because for the last 7 hours, I had had the task of making the biggest decision of my life. And I had only exactly 6 minutes left to make it.

So, you might be wondering what I might be doing here, sitting here on a stranded beach with no where to go and nothing to do, except think of the either the consequences or the joys I can get after making this one single decision that I have to decide on so soon. So, in all its entirety, since I haven't forgotten one single detail of it, here is my story.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

The hot July sun beat down me as I carried boxes full of my few possessions into my new house. It seemed to be a quiet day in Wyckoff, New Jersey, for I hadn't met anyone since I had arrived in the small town this morning on account of my mother getting a new job. I looked down the street at the line of trees and small houses. After transferring the boxes from the moving van onto the porch, I sat down on a chair that faced the hedge that divided my house from the neighbor's house.

After some while I got the feeling that there was another human present nearby, and that someone was watching me. I jumped when I heard a rustling in the hedge, and then I caught a glimpse of two small, beady eyes curiously staring at me through the overgrown hedge. My idea that I had imagined this was proved false when a small, skinny body with a mop of hair fell through the hedge, along with the eyes. After I got over this sudden surprise, I went over to help pick up the boy who was turning red and sheepishly looking at the ground.

"Hi," I said, "What were you doing in there?" The boy just stood there staring at the ground, wiping the dirt off his knees and licking his lips embarrassingly.

He finally looked up and spoke. "I heard that we had new neighbors and I was checking to see if it was true."

"Oh," I said, "You could have just come to our door you know, I'm sure that would have been a lot more comfortable than that hedge." The boy looked up sadly but his face lightened up and turned into a grin when he saw that his spying target was also smiling. "I'm Nick," he said, offering out his muddy hand for a shake but quickly pulled it away when he realized there was blood dripping down onto the grass from his palm.

"Hi Nick, I'm Anna," I said. "Do you want to come inside so you can clean that cut of yours?"

"Sure, that would be great." I turned around and ploughed my way through the boxes in order to reach the door. Once we were inside Nick put his hand under the sink, and then I gave him some antibiotic cream and a band-aid for his hand. "Thanks," Nick said after I finished applying the bandage to his palm. "You're a life saver."

I smiled and looked at this hand. "Hey, you like the Yankees?" I said as I pointed to his Yankees wristband. "Yeah," he said, "They're my favorite team. Who's your all-time favorite player?"  
"Micky Mantle," I replied, happy that someone was so interested as I was in the topic.

"No, way, that's my favorite player too!" Nick exclaimed. "Want to come over to my house to look at my baseball cards? I've got a really big collection."

"Sure," I said. We walked outside and turned to our right. I was faced with a small, quaint white house that had some paint chipping off and a few overgrown bushes and flower beds. There was a large oak tree in the front that had a tire swing and a pirate flag attached to it that was flying in the late afternoon breeze, and the grass was covered with tricycles and water guns. The warm glow of the sun reflected off of the house's windows, and stuck near the front of the path in a patch of grass stuck a wooden sign that read "Jonas". I loved everything immediately.

"Sorry 'bout the mess," Nick said, "My brothers can be really messy sometimes. It bugs me a lot."

"You have brothers?" as we walked across the toy strewn front yard with a smile.

"Yeah, three," Nick said. We walked into his backyard, where he quickly pointed out to me 3 boys; the youngest was playing in the grass, another was sneakily putting dirt into the youngest one's hair when he wasn't looking, and what seemed to be the eldest was sitting in the corner playing a guitar softly to himself.

"These are Frankie, Joe, and Kevin," Nick said as he pointed to each one respectively. "Common, let's go inside to look at my baseball cards," Nick said, and we both rushed inside the Jonas household.

The Jonases and I became fast friends that summer. Everyone now knew who I was, and they also knew where I was also because wherever the Jonas boys were, I was with them, and vice versa. But Nick and I were the closest. Every summer day we were climbing trees, going to the beach, pretending to be spies, playing imaginative games, going camping, sending secret messages to each other, and not stopping until we fell asleep from exhaustion. We were 10 years old back then, and it was the best summer I had ever had.

It was the last week of August that summer, and it was the night before my birthday. Me and the Jonas boys were in their kitchen, making some sort of gloop in a pan that Joe swore would have to effect of making your skin green. My mom and Mrs. Jonas, who had also become friends, were sitting at the table drinking coffee and chatting.

"Joe, is this really going to work?" I asked, peering into the saucepan and scrunching my nose as the odor came up from the pan.

"Yup. Just dab it on your skin and it will eventually look like Shrek." He jumped up onto the counter and pretended to be a chief, instructing us to take random things out of the cupboards and throw it into his concoction.

"Joseph Adam Jonas, get down from there!" Mrs. Jonas said sharply before returning to her conversation.

Joe was just getting down when Frankie came rushing into the kitchen. "I found one, I found one!" he cried. "Found what?" said Nick. "A fairy!" said Frankie, as he removed a twig from his pocket. "I'm going to kill it," he said with a cunning grin, and he threw it into the boiling pan. I yelped as a piece of hot gloop flew out of the pan and landed on my right hand.

"You okay?" Nick asked, looking at Joe who was sadly trying to remove the twig from his now contaminated potion, and wondering why my hand hadn't turned green.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I said, as I put my hand under some cold water.

"Hey, look at that," Kevin said as I removed my hand. "The burn is in the shape of a 'J'!"

Everyone crowded around me as a flaunted my new mark. "Wow, it does," said Nick. "How weird is that?"

"Really? I don't think so," I said, inspecting the fresh burn. "It looks like just a burn to me,"

"A burn in the shape of a 'J'," said Joe. "It's a sign."

"A sign of what?"

"That you are an official Jonas," Joe said. "But to become an official Jonas you have to take the test."

"Ok, what's that?" I said laughing.

"Tell me what his name is," Joe said, pointing at Kevin.

"That's Kevin."

"Correct! Welcome to the club." Joe then got up, and ignoring his mother's orders, stood up on the counter and picked up the twig. "I now dub thee Anna Jonas," he said, as he placed the twig like a sword on each of my shoulders and then jumped back down. I bowed in response to the cheers from his brothers.

"Boys, what on earth is this?" Mrs. Jonas asked as she looked down into the greenish brown pot. "Clean this out so I can make dinner, please,"

"Oh, it's nothing," said Kevin as he threw the gloop into the garbage, and we then all sat down for dinner.

Later that night me and Nick were sitting out tree house, swapping baseball cards. The late summer breeze was making the trees sway in the breeze, and the air was fresh and smelled like honey. It was just me and him, because Kevin was out at the movies with his friends, Joe was at the ice cream store picking up girls, and Frankie was playing with my younger brother and sister, Charlie and Sophie. For once, I appreciated the peace and quiet.

"Alex Rodriguez."

"Nope."

"How about Jorge Posada?"

"No way? You have Posada?"

"Yup."

"Ok, I'll take him for two Alberto Gonzalez's."

"Deal."

The bargaining stopped when Nick suddenly sat up. "We're best friends, right?" he said shyly, looking at the ground. He always had a habit of doing that; when he suddenly got shy, he would look at the ground.

"Yeah," I replied, sitting up also.

"Well, then, I feel like we should tell a secret to each other that has something to do with us."

"That's a good idea. But what is there that I don't know about you? I know everything about you and you know everything about me, right?"

"Yeah, but just in case. You first."

"Um…ok...what did you think of me when you first came out of the hedge."

Nick blushed in embarrassment. "That wasn't funny…I thought you were very nice." He then paused. "What did you think of me?" he asked curiously.

"I thought you were nice to. And a little strange for liking to live in hedges, but overall nice."

"Hey!" Nick said, and he playfully punched me in the arm.

"Now your turn."

"Ok. Remember the show I did on Broadway on Saturday?"

"Yeah. You were really good in that by the way."

"Thanks. Well, some guy from Columbia Records heard that song that I made and decided to sign me, Joe and Kevin as a band. We're going to L.A. tomorrow get started on some music and stuff."

I jumped up and down with excitement. "Really? That's great! I'm so happy for you guys! But how come you didn't tell me sooner?"

"We wanted it to be a surprise. It was kinda unexpected, but we took the only chance we've got. It seems like it's a good idea since Kevin's a monster at the guitar and Joe doesn't have a bad voice. We'll only be gone for a week."

"No, that's great!" I exclaimed. "What are you going to name your band?"

"We were thinking Sons of Jonas…"

I made a face. "No, not that…" I snapped my fingers as a light bulb went on above my head. "I've got it! How about the Jonas Brothers?"

"Hey, I like that!" I'll tell that to my dad and Joe and Kevin later!"

By this time we had climbed out of the tree house and were sitting side by side on a large branch. From there we could see everything, the entire neighborhood, the beach, the hills behind that…I sighed with pleasure. "But wait," I said, " We were meant to tell secrets to each other that had to do with both of us. Does this mean I get to join your new band?" I batted my eyelashes suggestively.

"No…" he suddenly started blushing. "I guess I should have said it a while ago, so, here it goes…" he took a deep breath. "Anna, I really lik-"

Just then there was a shout from down below. "NICK AND ANNA SITTING IN A TREE! K-I-S-"

"SHUT UP, JOE!" Nick screamed. Nick quickly jumped off the tree and furiously chased his laughing brother into the house. I laughed as I watched two figures running around inside. Then Joe came back out. "Hey, you want to stay for dinner?"

"No thanks," I said. "But come up here, I want to tell you something."

Joe climbed up the ladder to the tree house, then made his way over to the branch to where I was. "Yeah?"

"What do you think about the 'Jonas Brothers'?"  
"Nick told you?" he asked, playing with the branch above him.

"Yeah. What do you think?"

He looked at me. "I like it. You've got quite a talent for naming things."

I laughed. Just then a bunch of leaves fell down from the branch that Joe was playing with. "Joe!" I cried as I tried picking them out of my hair. He reached over and helped me take them out of my hair.

"You sure you don't want to stay for dinner?"

I pouted my lips as I thought. "Sure why not." We both jumped off the tree and went inside, just as Mrs. Jonas and Nick were setting the table for dinner.

That night as I was in bed, I suddenly remembered that Nick was going to tell me something before Joe came. What was he going to say? I started thinking of all the possibilities, but I fell asleep thinking.

The next day was my birthday, but I quickly rushed over to the Jonas household to say goodbye before their departure to Los Angeles. I went over to the Jonas house and saw Mr. Jonas hurriedly throwing bags into the trunk of their car. "Hi, Mr. Jonas," I said as I made my way over to their car. "Well hello, Anna," said Mr. Jonas as he closed the trunk and wiped his forehead.

"I'm so happy about the news." I said as I put my hands in his pockets and watched him pack up.

"I know, God has chosen this as out moment, I guess," Mr. Jonas said, looking anxiously at the house. Suddenly Joe and Kevin came out of the house. "Hey, guys, where's Nick?" I asked as they got into the car. "I need to say goodbye to him." "Oh, I don't know," said Kevin. He still had his guitar around his neck and was playing it until Mr. Jonas grabbed it and shoved it into the car. "Oh, here he is with Mom."

Mrs. Jonas came out of the house with Frankie holding her hand and a large suitcase in the other. "Bye, sweetie," she said, kissing me goodbye. "See you next week." "Bye, Anna," said Frankie. "I'll miss you." "I'll miss you too, Frank. But I'll see you next week, right?" I gave him a hug and then faced Nick. He had his hands in his pockets and was looking down at the ground, but not in his usual shy way. This, this was different.

"Bye, Nicholas. Good luck," I opened up my arms for a hug, but he walked right past me without even looking up. "Nick?" I said, but he just walked straight towards the car. "Nick-" I said again, and he turned around, and looked me in the eyes for the first time. The look in his eyes frightened me; I suddenly felt alone and afraid as he looked at me coldly and like he had never seen me before. And…he just held up his hand, and said in a straining voice, as though he had a sore throat and couldn't utter a word, but he did say one word, and it was the thing that hurt me the most: "Stop."

"Wha – "

"Just stop. I hate you. I hate you so much I can't even begin to tell you how much I hate you."

He turned around and went into the car. Mr. Jonas backed out of the driveway and started driving down the road. My eyes stung a little with the tears, and I didn't know what I was feeling: love, hate, loyalty, betrayal…I was utterly confused. That's it: confused. As the car drove down into the distance, Kevin opened his car window and stuck his head out of it, shouting to me, "Don't worry, we'll be back!"

But they never did come back.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The noisy yellow taxis honked and beeped as they tried to make their way out of the traffic on the rainy New York streets. 5 years later, and this is where I was. My mom got her job changed again, and we were in the city this time, thankfully away from Wyckoff, New Jersey. I sat by the window watching the rain lash against the glass gloomily, thinking about that day 5 years ago. After that, I had tried calling Nick again, but it was either his voicemail, or Joe and Kevin picked up and said he "wasn't there". Yeah right. Why did he do that anyway? It's not like I did anything.

To get my mind off of them, I turned on the TV. I sat back on the couch and relaxed and watched E! news. The lady with the tight dress and lots of makeup on started talking about this week's hottest news. "This has been a scorching summer so far, but could it get any hotter? Yes, it can! The Jonas Brothers have been burning up the charts with their new hit single, 'Burnin' Up', as well with their new video. Both have been #1 on the charts and iTunes since they came out 3 weeks ago, and I don't think they will for a while! Now, Britney Spears has had another meltdown…" I angrily shut off the TV. First of all, I made up band name for the Jonas Brothers: it was ALL ME. Second of all, how could have they become so famous and just forget her? I had been best friends with them that summer, the summer that fame and fortune struck them, and they hadn't even contacted me since then, especially Nick. Whatever; I don't need them anymore.

I escaped to my bedroom, which is pretty small but has a great view of Central Park. The entire city seems to stretch out in front of me whenever I look out the window and can see everything there is for miles; that's the only good thing I have found so far about the city: the feeling that I am at the top of the world.

I closed the door and lay on my bed. I turned on my bedside table lamp since the rain, which was still pelting down, was darkening the room. The lamp had a faint glow and relaxed me as I looked at my walls covered with Jonas Brothers posters. Yes, I admit, I do have many posters. I ripped up all the photos I had with them in a rage, and I felt guilty for not seeing their faces or remembering good times, so I went out and bought some magazines and stuck them up on my walls. It didn't have the same effect, since I wanted to see the boys that I had grown to know and love in their small hometown in new Jersey, not these wealthy tween celebrities that seemed to be ruling the world right now. I am currently very confused: I hate these boys yet I love these boys. But so far, I'm hating them more.

I turned on the radio to Z100. The song that was playing was 'Hold On'. Great. I changed the station to Radio Disney. S.O.S. Then KIIS FM. Burnin' Up. Station after station was a Jonas Brothers song. "Just leave me alone!" I screamed at the radio as I threw a pillow at it to make it stop. Why couldn't they just disappear? They were constantly coming up in anything I tried thinking about. But it wasn't my fault.

I went over to my keyboard and started playing some chords. If nothing else could relax me, playing music was the only thing that could. Nick had taught me how to play the piano…no! Must stop thinking about them! Life was unfair when your ex-best friends were famous pop stars and you were left in the dirt to just sit and watch them grow bigger and die yourself. I looked down at the scar on my right hand. Unfortunately, that hadn't gone away yet, so whenever I looked down at you I had to be reminded of them, wherever I was. It was just a stupid scar full of memories that I wanted to erase from my head.

Just then my cell phone rang. On the caller ID it said it was my best friend Claire, so I picked it up. "Hello?"

A sound from the other end bruised my eardrums. "Oh my God, Anna, I've got the coolest news EVER!"

"What, Claire," I said, putting a finger in my ear to make sure it was still working. "Is your sister moving out, or something?"

"Ha, ha, very funny," Claire said impatiently, sounding as though she was about to burst. "I'm going to tell you to imagine something."

"Ok…shoot."

"Ok – imagine that tomorrow at 7:00 you and me, going down to Madison Square Garden, and…drum roll please…" After hearing no drum roll from the other end of the phone, Claire did one herself with her teeth. "Duh duh duh da! A JONAS BROTHERS CONCERT! AND WE'RE IN THIRD ROW!" A series of screaming issued from Claire while I just sat there, dumbfounded. How could I go to a Jonas Brothers concert? I couldn't even see them in a magazine without clenching my fists, let alone a concert! And we would be so close as well! What if they saw me? Then what would I do? There was no way I could go.

The screaming stopped when Claire realized that no one was accompanying her. "Hello? You still there? Aren't you happy? This guy that my mom works with got them for us! IT WILL BE THE BEST DAY OF OUR LIVES EVER!"

"Uh, yeah...Claire, I'm sorry to say that I can't come."

Claire was silent. "Wha- why not?"

I raked my brains for a good excuse. No one knew that I had originally been friends with these boys; my family felt it was best not to boast and draw attention to ourselves by having others intrude on our personal relationships with other people. It just wasn't right.

"Um…we're going to Guademala tomorrow."

"You are? Why Guademala? Are you going to do a service project, or something? How come you didn't tell me sooner? Can you bring me back some fruit, like some mangoes, or something?"

"Yeah...um, sure…but I'm sorry that we have to go to Guatemala and not the concert."  
Just then my mom walked into the room. "What concert?" she asked. I had to tell her the truth. "One minute, Claire." I held the phone against my chest and said to my mom, "Claire got tickets to a Jonas Brothers concert and she wants me to come. But I told her no, because I don't really…want to, you know…"

"You should go!" my mom said. Great. "You have to because Claire invited you and it would be rude to decline, and anyways, don't you want to see the boys again? It would be nice to after not seeing them for so many years." I had to go now. I'd just have to avoid them as much as possible.

I held the phone back up to my mouth. "Hey, Claire…turns out I can come now. My mom was just joking about Guademala." My mom gave me a look of confusion but I waved my hand, signaling to her to forget about it. "Come to my house at 6."

"YES!" Claire screamed. "I CAN'T WAIT! Maybe Nick will fall in love with me! HE IS SOOO HOT! BYE!" The phone clicked and I closed it shut. I sighed and went to go get some ice for my ear. I badly didn't want to go, but if I could hide, I could probably make it out of the place without them ever knowing I was there.

It was the day of the concert. Claire called me the second she woke up, which was at 5:15 in the morning. "Claire, do you know what time it is?" I groaned as I tried to keep my eyes open. I was exhausted because I couldn't fall asleep last night from nerves and worry.

"I know! I'm sorry, but I'm so excited! Hey, what do you think I should wear?"

"I don't know, clothes?'  
"I know, but I need to wear something amazing that will make Nick notice me."

"Why do you want Nick to notice you anyway?"

"Anna, have you seen that boy? He is A GIFT FROM GOD. Have you ever even looked at him before?"

"Trust me, I have."

"Ok. So you get it. Now help me decide what to wear!" she whined.

But I had already fallen asleep again.

It was 5:56. I couldn't do this. I quickly picked up the phone and dialed Claire's number. "Listen, Claire, I can't come…I'm sick."

I heard a voice behind me. "Oh, really? You don't look that sick to me." Great, it was Claire standing in my front doorway. I groaned the second I looked at her. "Claire, what the hell are you wearing?" She had a large black t-shirt that had "I LOVE THE JONAS BROTHERS" written on it, with a matching black cap, leggings, and face paint. She was also holding a poster that read 'Mrs. Nick Jonas'.

"Why are you naked?" she asked, ignoring my question.

I looked down at my white shorts, silver sandals, and red shirt. "What are you talking about? I have clothes on."

"No," she retorted. "You're not Jonified _at all_."

"Need I be?" I said. "Come one, lets go, we'll be late."

The entire arena was dominated by teenage girls. I slumped down into my seat trying to hide my face as everyone surrounding me was screaming for the Jonas Brothers. The concert hadn't even started yet and they were acting as though it was. Ridiculous. Suddenly the screams grew louder as the lights dimmed and smoke blew onto the stage.

"OH MY GOD!" Claire screamed. "Oh my god." I moaned.

Then there they were. They rose from out of the stage and stood there, spectating the thousands of girls that were longing for them to give so much as a glance of an eye towards them. For a second I curiously peeked from behind my hands that were covering my face the three boys that I had basically grown up with. There was Kevin, who now had a mass of even more curly hair and a full-grown body. Then there was Joe, whose hair was straight and flowing with a toned body and excited brown and steady eyes. And last but of course the least, there was Nick, whose curls had become even crazier, who had large biceps replacing his old skinny arms, who had captivating almond eyes, who had a chiseled face that had a sense a perfection placed on it that couldn't be described. I caught myself before I got too carried away. That of course, I corrected myself, was the opinion of all the other girls here, except for me. I would never stoop that low. I ducked Claire's enormous 'Mrs. Nick Jonas' sign that she was wildly waving around, and returned my butt to its seat, where it remained for the rest of the concert, along with the deafening screams, and a couple of tears that managed to squeeze themselves out of sad eyes, even though they weren't supposed to. Those tears were mine.

Nick looked at the screaming crowd as he rose up onto the stage. The wind swept through his hair as he viewed every person in the crowd. Even though this was the millionth time he had done this, each time it was exhilarating and new. And he loved it. His eye then caught someone sitting in the third row, and probably the only person sitting. He couldn't see her face because she was hiding it, and he pointed her out to his brothers. They shrugged their shoulders, so he did to, and he moved his fingers over his guitar, strummed his first chord, and began to play.

Halfway through the concert, my sister Sophie texted me saying, "HOW'S THE CONCERT?"

"S.O.S."

"I LOVE THAT SONG! ARE THEY PLAYING THAT RIGHT NOW?"

"NO, I'M SAYING PLEASE SAVE ME."

"OH. HAVE FUN. SAY HI TO THEM FOR ME."

I closed my phone as the final notes to the last song played. Then they went away, despite their fans screaming pleads to return. I breathed a sigh of relief. It was over; I was free. Mission accomplished. I started making my way towards the Exit signs before someone grabbed my hand. It was Claire.  
"Where are you going?" she said, excitement flooding her face. "We have to go to the Meet and Greet?"

"What? No!" I said as she started pulling me towards this long line, but my feet kept me back. "I can't go! I'll stay behind."

Just then a security guard pushed me into the line. "Please get in the line, miss. There are lots of people waiting." I tried to get out but I was stuck. For the thousandth time today, great. I quickly grabbed Claire's 'Mrs. Nick Jonas' sign from her and stuck it in front of my face.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Claire said as I snatched it from her.

"Hiding," I said as we approaching the table closer and closer. Claire was about to question me even more someone pushed us, and before I knew it I was standing right in front of them, watching them sign poster, CD's and pieces of paper hurriedly so that they could get out of there. I was trembling behind the poster, praying that they wouldn't notice me. Claire was in awe as she watched them swipe a Sharpie on her CD and reveal a signature underneath. We were just about to leave the table when Claire suddenly said, "Oh, can you sign my poster?'  
I glared at Claire from behind the poster but she ignored me. "Sure," I heard Kevin say. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes as I slowly lowered the poster, and I twisted my head so they couldn't see my face. I was astonished when Claire started tugging on my shirt, saying, and "Common, we have to move on now." Yes! I had actually gotten past them without them noticing me! I put down my hand on the table with my head still twisted as Joe put his signature on the poster to catch my balance (it wasn't an easy position I was in) when suddenly Joe said, "Hey, that's so weird! We once had a friend that had a scar just like yours on your hand."

"Uh huh," I said, as a cold sweat started to form on my body. "That's so cool!" I heard Kevin say. "It's a 'J', just like An-" he stopped for a second. It was too late. "Anna, is that you?" Kevin said. I had to reveal myself.

I slowly turned my head to see Joe and Kevin and Claire with looks of astonishment on their faces. Nick was turned away talking to someone; thank God, he hadn't noticed me yet. "Uh, yeah," I said, forcing myself to raise a corner of my lip into a somewhat smile. "It's me."

"What's going on?" Claire hissed at me. "How do they know who you are?"

"We haven't seen you, in like, forever!" cried Joe as he gave me a hug.

"Can you please hurry up?" said a lady behind. "My granddaughter has to use the bathroom but she'd much rather meet these boys first."

"Oh, sorry," said Kevin. "Hey, we'll meet you backstage after this in like, 15 minutes, ok? We'll try and be quick. You can take your friend with you, too, if she wants to. Big Rob, can you please take them there?"

The biggest man I had ever seen suddenly came up to Claire and me. We had to crane our necks in order to see his head, but that was even difficult. "Come with me, guys," he said, and he led us through a number of corridors and doors until we were in an empty spot that was right behind the stage. "Wait here, guys, and the boys will be here soon." Then he left.

Claire and I just stood there. There were so many people rushing around, with mops, walkie-talkies, clothes, make-up, giant lights…it was like we were standing in the middle of a hurricane. I than realized what I had gotten myself into, and I slapped my forehead. "Stupid, stupid, stupid!"

"What?" Claire said. "Nothing," I said. Then Claire suddenly slapped me in the arm.

"Ow!"

"Why didn't you ever tell me?"

"Tell you what?"

"That you are friends with the freakin' Jonas Brothers?"

"You mean I _was _friends with the Jonas Brothers. And besides, I didn't want you to become one of _them_ towards me." I pointed to the girls behind the curtain that were screaming from excitement because Joe had touched one of their fingernails. "I didn't want everyone to treat me like that just because I was friends with them. Why would it be so important if I was, anyway?"

"Because they're AMAZING!" Claire cried impatiently, still wondering why I hadn't got the grasp of it. "They talented, hot, just ama-" She stopped short and blushed when she realized her gods were walking towards her. Joe and Kevin looked excited and alive, and there was Nick walking behind them, hands in his pockets, staring at the ground. Typical.

"Hey! I can't believe we bumped into you after not seeing you for so long!" Joe cried, and he gave me another hug.

"Yeah, we tried to reach you, but you weren't at home."

"That's because I moved to New York, like, a year or two ago."

"Really? Come to our room so we can talk properly."

We walked through some more corridors. I looked at Nick again, but he still wasn't looking or speaking. I took a closer look at him; he had grown a lot, and he had definitely become more handsome… sorry, didn't mean that, he had definitely become _older_, and he wore different clothes. But the thing that was most different about him was that he didn't have the same fun, excited look in his eyes that I had always seen in him before, but I couldn't now. His eyes were just empty, sad, quiet. He must have had a lot of it in his eyes if I could see it so well considering he was looking at the ground, and I started to feel bad for him. But then again, I didn't. I didn't necessarily hate him…I just wanted my old friend back.

"Here we are," said Kevin as he opened a door that had a sign on it saying, "Jonas Brothers Dressing Room". As Claire and I saw the room, we just went "Wow". There was a sofa, a flat-screened TV, a ping-pong table, a vending machine, a fridge, racks of clothing, and piles and piles of boxes and things. Then a saw Frankie whizzing by on his scooter around the dressing room, making whirring noises with his tongue. He was older by several years, but he was still the same child I had known him to be. "Hi, Frankie." I said, waving my hand. Frankie turned his head at the noise, and a wide grin spread across his face, causing him to lose focus and crash him and his scooter into the ping-pong table. "Anna!" he cried, and he quickly got up, leaving the scooter on the ground with the wheels still spinning, and hugged me tightly. "I missed you!"

"I missed you too, Frankie," I said, and I knelt down so that I would be at this level. "What have I been up to?"

"Oh, you know…stuff," he said shyly. "But I am now a champion scooterist and Gameboy player because they're doing concerts all the time so that's how I've become a pro." he pointed at his brothers.

We all sat down on the giant L-shaped sofa. After a moment of silence Claire said, "Nice place."

More silence.

Joe finally got up and said, "Hey, does anyone want some drinks? Nick, Redbull?" Nick nodded as his eyes were still fixed on the ground.

"Oh, I'd _love_ some Redbull, too, Joe," said Claire. She looked over at Nick lovingly and said, "But _sugar-free_, though, please. For my diabetes."

For the first time that evening, Nick looked up. He didn't say anything, though, he just raised an eyebrow.

"Ok…" said Joe, and he got two sugar-free Redbulls from the fridge.

"Claire, you don't have diabetes." I hissed.

"Oh, but I could get it," said Claire with great concern. "You never know, now, do we, Nick?" She raised her can and took a swig of it, and tried to hide the face she made. I knew that she hated the sugar-free kind and only drank the original. The things that people do for love.

"Hey guys, we need help carrying something." Big Rob came into the room. "Kevin? Joe?" The two stood up and left the room. I was hoping Nick would to, but he stayed behind, staring at the floor and only looking up briefly so he could take a sip of his Redbull. There was an awkward silence for several moments.

"Is that yours?" I jumped at his voice. I looked up to see him smirking, pointing at Claire's "Mrs. Nick Jonas" sign that was resting between my legs. I tried to refrain from blushing. "Uh, no, this is her's." I quickly tossed the poster to Claire, who glared at me with all the power she had inside of her when Nick wasn't looking. "How's your tour coming along?" she asked, and she turned her firing eyes to a soft, loving caressing look towards Nick.

"Oh, it's great. After this we have 17 more cities to go to, then we have to film our new T.V. show, then we promote our new CD before going over to Europe for another tour with Avril Lavigne." Wow, was he talented. He could now actually manage to talk to someone and not look at the floor at the same time. Bravo.

"Wow," Claire said breathlessly. "You're _so _busy. Don't you ever want to just say 'Stop'?"

I suddenly looked him in the eye, my first contact with him since that day. "Trust, me, he already has." I said under my breath.

"Huh?" said Nick, but just then Joe and Kevin came into the room again.

"So, tell me what's been happening for the past couple of years?" Joe asked as he sat down next to the bewildered Nick.

"Oh, just stayed in Wyckoff, wondering where you guys were, mom got new job and moved to New York, continued wondering where you guys were, and have continued stayed in New York, not continuing to wonder where you guys were." I kept my gaze on Nick.

"But that's because you found us here, right?" said Kevin.

"No. Gave up after the first 280 times."  
"I'm sorry that we weren't able to contact you," said Joe sadly. "It was because we were so busy and whenever we called, you weren't there. And I guess as the years passed by, we just grew farther apart…it was a horrible thing to do and we're really sorry. We're really sorry and we should have know better than to treat you in that way."

"And we'll do anything to make it up to you." said Kevin.

"Oh, it's ok, you guys. I understand." I said, and I went up to give them a hug. Frankie, who had been playing by the vending machine with his toy cars, got up and gave me a hug too.

"We called you every day for the first 6 months that you left," Frankie said, smiling under my arm. "Me, Joe and Kevin called and called and called."

"What about Nick?" I asked, and I looked at him again but he decided to stare at the floor instead. I desperately wanted to rip the floor underneath him so that he would look at something else. He must have read my mind, because he decided to play with his fingernails instead. After five years, I was here and he wanted to play with his index finger instead. I couldn't take it anymore.

"Um, we have to leave now." I said. I got up and grabbed Claire's hand, and I dragged her towards the door.

"What, no!" Claire whined and I whisked her away. "Why are you leaving so soon?" said Kevin.

"Mom doesn't want us home too late." I said, trying my best to pull Claire along, but she was dragging her feet along the floor to stop me. "Come on!" I said desperately.

"Will we see you soon?" shouted Joe from the doorway. "Yeah, sure," I said, trying to ignore the slaps that Claire was giving me. "Nice seeing you again!"

"What's your phone number?" came Kevin's voice.

I shouted my cell phone number to them as I went down the corridor dragging Claire, who was almost lying on the floor by now. People were looking at us as though had broken out of an asylum. "Bye!"

I watched Joe and Kevin's faces looking out of the doorway very confused, and I felt a wave of sadness and regret. But it was Nick's fault. I watched their faces get smaller and smaller as I moved farther and farther away as I pulled the now screaming Claire with me like a sack.

We finally reached the main area backstage where we had started. I pulled Claire up and she slapped me for the tenth time today.

"Why did you have to do that? I was in the same room as and talking to the Jonas Brothers, which has been my dream since the day I was born, and you just casually out of there? It's not fair!" She pulled a sulky face, closed her arms around her chest and turned away from me.

" You know that we had to leave because of the time," I said, trying to be patient. " And besides, you can see them whenever I can see them because I know them, and you know that, too?"

"Really?" Claire said, her face brightening. "Well, in that case…you're the best friend EVER!" she hugged me in a way that squished my face against her shoulder.

"Get erf me," I attempted to say under her arms. She pulled me away and then looked at the time on her phone. "Well, better get home. My mom's gonna freak when I come home so late…and when I tell her when I hung out with the JONAS BROTHERS! Bye!" she happily skipped away and disappeared.

"Bye, Claire! Thanks for the tickets!" I called after her, but I don't know whether she heard me or not. I made my way over to the other door to exit the place. It had been a long day and all I wanted to do is go home.

"Wait! Anna, can I talk to you for a minute?"

Oh, great. There was Nick, running down the hallway, his curls bouncing as he rushed towards where I was. His face wasn't like it had been in the dressing room; it looked normal, full of a bit more life, but not completely. When he came closer, his face had a sense of stiffness and quietness to it, but not the quietness that I was so used to. He seemed like an entirely different person to me, yet he didn't in other ways. I was so confused.

"Hey," he said as he ran up to me. His cheeks were a deep pink color, but I couldn't tell if that was from the running or if he was just blushing.

"Hey," I said back, and I started looking towards the ground before I caught myself and looked him in the eye instead.

"Um…" he stood there for a second, trying to find the right words. "Are you mad at me?"

"Nick, if I were mad at you, I'd have to care. And I don't care." And with that, I triumphantly walked towards the door again. I could sense his sadness.

"I'm sorry."

I turned around, but I forgot to be harsh with my eyes. "Sorry for what? For forgetting about me when we had spent an entire summer together, or for leaving me in the way that you did?" I held up my hand and put it in front of his face. "Just 'stop'."

I turned towards the door yet again, but he spoke again. "I don't really know what I was doing. I was younger then and wasn't thinking…I was only 10…"

I turned around, trying to hold back the tears that were forcing their way through my stinging eyes. "Oh yeah? Well, your 10-year-old foolishness caused us to move to New York. Because when you left me and became a huge pop star and I was left in the dust, I had to convince my mom for two years to take up a job that had been offered to her, just so I could get away from anything to do with you. And the only thing that I could never get away from was this stupid thing!" I shoved the hand with the scar in front of his astonished face, and with all the strength I had, I turned the knob and opened the door.

I squinted as I was suddenly confronted with the bright, dazzling lights, the honking cars, the busy people running all over the place, the energy. My head was whizzing; I usually _never_ spoke to people like that way I had just spoken to him, and it felt strange. But I made up my mind that people who deserved it got it. I stepped onto the streets, and tried my best to keep the tears that were starting to come out of my eyes, in my eyes. I raised my hand to hail a taxi, but I strong hand took it instead.

"Do you still like the Yankees?"

I nodded.

"I'm taking you to a Yankees game tomorrow. It's the least I could do."

He then quickly raised his hand, a taxi pulled by. He then turned around, and all I saw was a curl and legs clad with designer jeans go through the door.

"Who was that?" said the taxi driver as he drove the car out into the streets.

"A friend." I said.

I quietly opened the door to my apartment, and quietly took off my shoes and tried to tiptoe across to my room, just in case everyone was asleep. After all, it was nearly midnight. I jumped when I saw my mother sitting in my bedroom.

"How was the concert? Did you see the boys again?" she said as soon as I walked into the room.

"Um, yeah."

"Well, how are they doing?"

"They're doing great."

"Good, good. Are you ok?"

"Yeah. I'm fine."

"Ok."

Silence.

"Nick asked me to go to a Yankees game tomorrow."

"Really? How sweet of him. Are you going to go?"

"You know, I think I will."

"Good! I hope he'll come by here first, though. I haven't seen that boy in so long. Look how sweet you were!" She showed me a picture I had on my dresser. It was of me and him eating an ice cream while sitting in the sprinklers. We had huge smiles on our faces because that day we had both lost a tooth in the same spot. I smiled and got into bed.

"'Night, mom," I said as she kissed me goodnight. Then she turned off the lights and closed the door. I turned over and sighed. Then, I cried like I had never cried before, and eventually fell into a deep sleep.

I woke up the next morning with my cell phone ringing. That had been such a weird dream I had had. I had met the Jonas Brothers at a concert Claire took me to. Thank god it wasn't true. I laughed at the thought out loud, picked up the phone, and answered.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Anna, it's Nick."

Wait, was it real, then?

"As in Nick Jonas?"

"Um, yeah, that was my name last time I checked."

"How did you get my number?"

"You gave it to my brothers last night."

Darn. It was true. But for some reason I didn't mind.

"Oh yeah, now I remember. So what's up?"

"Oh, well, I just bought the Yankee tickets…"

"Oh, you didn't have to! I didn't expect you to! You really didn't need to do that!" I suddenly felt really bad for beating him up, then having him take me out to a baseball game.

"No, no, don't say that, I really want to take you to one…can I pick you up, at like, 6ish?"

"Sure, that's fine…thank you so much."

"No, it's fine. See you at 6. Bye."

"Bye."

I sat down on my bed again. I felt awful. I slowly got up and got dressed, and then stared out of my window, just thinking.

At 6, the doorbell rang. Crap. It was Nick. I quickly got up and answered the door. Nick was standing there, and Frankie was there next to him. "Anna!" he cried, and he hugged me. "Hi, Frankie!" I said. "Sorry I had to bring him here," mumbled Nick. "He was bored in the hotel so I thought it would be ok to get out a bit, you know? The tour is coming around to pick him up when we go downstairs. He just wanted to say hi."

"No, let him stay!" I said. "He can play with Sophie and Charlie! Sophie! Charlie! Get over here! There's someone here to see you! Frankie, you can go over there. They'll be there in a minute."

"Nice place you've got." Nick said, as he put his hands in his pockets. He had on white skinny jeans, a checkered blouse, and a white vest.

"Yeah, it's ok." I said. "It doesn't really have enough space to run around, and stuff," I said. "It was so much easier just having a backyard before."

"Yeah," he said. "Those were the times." He let his eyes wander over the place.

"Listen, I'm really sorry about last night," I said. This time, my eyes were looking at the ground, but I quickly made eye contact with him to let him know that I meant it. "I just feel awful about it, and you didn't deserve any of it. I was so stupid about everything...the stupidest thing is that I didn't even mean any of it, and…I hope you understand." I let my eyes gaze back to the floor.

"Anna, it's fine." Nick said, and I looked up and him and he actually smiled. "Don't worry about it, I was the one that did everything wrong. On the way here I was nervous that you still hated me for being so wrong. I'm the one that should be sorry." He at down on a chair.

"No! I don't hate you!" I cried. "No one can hate their friends, can they?" I sat down next to him and smiled.

"No, I hope not," he said. "'Cause that would be kinda sad if you did. And pathetic." We both laughed, and then my mom came into the room.

"Nick! My, you've grown so much!" she squealed. I rolled my eyes at her.

"Hi, Mrs. Broadbent," said Nick as he gave her a hug. "Nice seeing you again."

"Please, call me Indoo," said my mom. "You always used to call me that and you aren't stopping now."

"Ok," Nick laughed. "Is it ok if Frankie stays?"

"Oh, Franklin's here to? How are nice!" said my mom as she got her shoes on. "I'm afraid that I have to go out but there will be a babysitter coming, you have no need to worry. Are your parents in town?"

"Yeah. We're staying in the city for a couple of days before we continue our tour."

"Oh, great! Maybe I can see them and your brothers again soon, then, then? I have to leave now, but it was so nice to see you again!" said my mom as she walked out the door. "Bye!"

"Bye!" we both called, and then she finally left. "So, can you give me a tour of the house?" said Nick as the door slammed shut. "Sure, please step this way," I said, imitating the tour guide. I showed him the living room, the kitchen, we stuck our fingers in our ears as I showed my brother and sister's room, due to the amount of screams of joy and other noises that were occurring in there, the den, and so on.

"And here's my bedroom," I said as turned the knob. I caught I glimpse of a giant picture of Nick as I started opened the door. I quickly shut it. The posters! I had completely forgotten! "I'll be one second," I said, as I quickly closed the door behind me. "There's a huge mess in here and I don't think you'll want to see it."

I reached over to the walls, and I pulled my fingers at the posters and ripped them off. I felt bad for myself, having spent hours one day hanging them all up as I now looked at the ripped faces on the posters and the bare walls, but this was an emergency. I ripped off another batch.

"What are you doing?" Nick called from behind the door, as he heard strange sounds from inside.

"Just cleaning!" I called, trying my best to be as quick as possible. "So much to clean in so little time!"

"It sounds more like you're running a tractor through there!"

I quickly took the last one off my closet door and stuff the mass of ripped paper and tape under my bed and opened the door. Nick was still standing there with an eyebrow raised.

"You have permission to enter." I said as I guided my hand towards the inside of my room.

"Wow, you cleaned up pretty fast," he said as he looked around the room. He then went toward the window. "Wow, this view is…awesome." I watched his eyes gaze over the entire scene that was stretched in front of him. "I feel like I'm on top of the world, or something."

I looked at him in surprise. "Really? That's exactly how I feel when I looked up?"

He gave a comical smile. That was something that wasn't new, at least. "Hey, I remember this!" he picked up the photo I had on my dresser. I had forgotten to put that away…oops.

"Oh yeah, my mom just put that there." I didn't want him to think that even though I apparently hated him for so long I still kept pictures of him.

"Yeah, we have thousands of pictures on our tour bus that have you in it."

Oh. Well then.

"Yeah, those were good times," Nick sighed as he sat down on my chair. "Sometimes I really miss them." He looked around the room. "Remember that time when we went to the swimming pool and we decided to go on the diving board together and we broke it? We were banned from that pool for, like, life."

I smiled at the thought. "And when Joe basically blew up the kitchen when he tried out his new chemistry set?"

Nick threw back his head and laughed. I had always liked his laugh. It was like between a chuckle and a real hard laugh. "And when Kevin had those pole vaulting championships in Paterson and he got stuck at the top of the pole?"

We shared many other 'good times' and our sides hurt from laughing, even though not all of them were hilarious. I guess we just liked laughing. Nick quickly looked at his Rolex watch.

"Oh, time flies," he said, getting up. "I guess we better go if we want to make it to that Yankees game."

"Oh, right," I said, and I quickly grabbed my Yankees cap and we went out the door. There was a man in the elevator who kept staring at us, but he didn't say anything.

"Have I seen you somewhere?" he said to Nick after a while. "Maybe…maybe in the magazine store, or something?"

"No, sorry, I don't think so," said Nick hurriedly, and we quickly rushed outside and hailed a taxi.

"Do you get that a lot?" I said as I got into the cab.

"Yeah, but I'm used to it," Nick replied. He turned to the driver. "Yankees stadium, please."

We were finally settled into our seats. Everyone cheered as the players came onto the field and started to practice their pitching and batting.

"Man, I haven't been to one of these for a while," said Nick as he looked around the stadium in awe. He looked like a 7-year old who looked like he had just been given the entire stadium for his birthday.

"Neither have I," I said. "But I've never had such good seats as these! These are the best ones in the entire stadium! How on earth did you get these?"

He sat back in his seat silently. "Oh," I said, a little embarrassed. "Sorry. Sometimes I forget that you're _famous_." I looked at him and grinned, and he grinned back.

"Hey, do you want a hot dog, or something? My treat." he said, suddenly standing up.

"Sure," I said. "Thanks."

I sat back in my seat, when I felt a sudden tap on my shoulder. "Was that your boyfriend with you just then?" She was a middle-aged woman that looked like she annoyed a lot of people. I could see why.

"Oh no, he's just a friend," I said, looking over at Nick, who was trying to fit his hand in the pockets of his skinny jeans for the exact change, but he was having trouble doing so considering they were so tight.

"My daughter loves him," said the woman, looking at him as well. "Too bad you've got dibs on him already."

"But he's not my boyfr-"

"Back," Nick said, and he handed me a hot dog. "Thanks," I said as I took it from him, and then the announcer said over the speakers, "And batting up next for the Yankees is, Jorge Posada."

"Posada!" me and Nick cheered, and then Nick reached for something in his pocket. "Here, this is for you."

"What's this?" I said, as he handed me a battered and slightly bent Posada baseball trading card.

"It's really meant to be yours," he said, and I could see that he was blushing a bit, but I couldn't really tell. "I was meant to trade it with you on the last day that we were together, you know, in the tree house? But I forgot, I guess."

"You kept it for me? Oh, that's so sweet of you!" I have to say, I was quite flattered. I put it in my pocket and made sure nothing happened to it.

"Foul!" the announcer said as the ball that Posada hit at went behind him. The ball shot up in the air and started to head towards us. "Quick, catch it!" I said, as Nick stretched out his hand. The ball fell perfectly into his palm. He then looked down at the floor. "Aw, my hot dog!" he said sadly.

"Here," I said. "Have some of mine."

The rest of the game went well, and I enjoyed myself immensely. Nick had obviously loosened up a bit, because he was talking and laughing a lot, and it almost felt like this was taking place 5 years ago. Except for the annoying woman behind us whispering, "Friend? I don't think so," everything was perfect. Nick was right; time does fly, because it felt only like 10 minutes had past when I was back outside of my door, saying goodbye.

"Thank you so much, Nick," I said. "It was so much fun. Definitely something to remember." I stuck out my hand for a handshake.

"No problem. But I'm not a businessman, you know," he laughed, pointing at my outstretched hand. Instead, he reached in for a hug, and I hugged him back, which was a little different from before, since his arms and chest were hard and sturdy with muscle, but it was all right. "Bye," Nick said as he stepped into the elevator. "What about Frankie?" I called as the doors started to close. "My mom said he was sleeping over at your place. Bye." The doors closed shut, and I headed back inside.

It was late, so like the night before, I tiptoed into my room. I jumped when I saw my mom in there.  
"Why must you always do that?"

"Sorry. Just wondering how the baseball game went."

"Oh, it was great. So, Frankie's staying over, huh?"

"Yeah. I spoke to Denise today. They're staying in New York for a couple of days, so we're going to see them for lunch tomorrow."

"Really? That should be…interesting?"

"Why do you say that?"

"You know, paparazzi and stuff."

"Oh, I forgot. My, those boys have gone far. Good night."

"'Night."

I lay down on my bed and closed my eyes. But instead of crying like the night before, I laughed myself to sleep. Life is confusing.


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The next morning I woke up yet again to the sound of my phone ringing. This time it was Claire.

"Anna?"

"Hi, Claire," I said sleepily, as I sat down by the window.

"So…how was the Yankees game last night?"

"Wait, how did you know that? I didn't tell you that I was even going."

"Yeah, by the way, thanks for keeping me updated," Claire said sarcastically. "But everyone now knows that you and Nick went to the game last night because you're in the newspaper."

My stomach lurched. Oh no. "What newspaper?" I said as I tried to hold down my hot dog from the night before. I was hoping that she would say the name of a minor one that no one read.

"The New York Times."

"Oh no. Claire, I've got to go. I'll call you later."

I quickly pulled on some clothes and brushed my hair and teeth, then raced out the door to the newsstand downstairs, dreading going there and hoping that the results wouldn't be to bad. I groaned as I picked up a copy of the new newspaper, fresh from the printing place, and looked at the cover story. 'Are they dating?' the words screamed, and then it said underneath it. 'Pop star and member of the well-known and fan-crazed band the Jonas Brothers Nick Jonas was seen last night at the Yankees game with a mysterious person. Turn to page 3 for more details.' There it was, a picture of Nick and I sitting in our seats. I had my knees crossed, and Nick was bending down with laughter. I didn't think it looked like as though we were dating at all, but to the writers and reporters, they were trying to make it look like as though a picture truly was a thousand words. I quickly flipped to page 3 for the full story.

'_The Yankees won last night against the Los Angeles Angels but it looks like someone else was won last night: Jonas Brother's member Nick Jonas' heart. He and a mysterious girl that looked his age were seen in seats behind the home plate, and they looked more than just friends. The two were seen sharing their hot dogs and paying more attention to what each other had to say rather than the game that was occurring at the same time. Looks like this Jo Bro may be in for some summer love.'_

I looked up from the paper and groaned. How did they see us? And how could they just assume we were dating? I looked down at another picture of us below the article that was of me eating one end of the hot dog and Nick the other end.

"Hey Claire?" I said into the phone. I was back upstairs in my bedroom. "You were right. We're in the newspaper."

"Why didn't you tell me that you two were dating?" Claire said sadly.

"We're not dating!" I said, frustrated. "How could you think after seeing him for only a day after five years that we would be dating? We are just friends, and like normal friends we went down to a baseball game, and some people just decided to say to everyone that we're dating because they have nothing else to do with their boring lives." I was mad, real mad.

" Ok…" Claire said, a bit hesitantly. "But why don't you like all of this, anyways?"

"First of all, he's a really good friend of mine. It would be weird if we were together. Second of all, if we were dating and anyone found out, I would have to be treated differently and I would be the number one enemy of all girls in America. And third of all, we're just not dating. I'm not going to pretend something's true when it isn't."

"Oh, ok," Claire said. "Oh, and by the way, I'm leaving for Florida tonight."

"What, no! Claire, you can't leave me! I'm so stuck and confused right now!"

"Sorry," Claire replied. "Last minute plans. It's a good thing you didn't go to Guadalupe, though, right? And anyways, you've got the Jo Bros by you side. Gotta go. Bye."

"Bye, Claire." I said, and the phone on the other end clicked.

I made my way into the kitchen, where Frankie, Sophie and Charlie were eating breakfast. "Hey, guys," I said as I reached inside the fridge for a bagel.

"Hi, Anna," Frankie said. "Why do you look so sad?" he scooped up a spoonful of cereal, but missed his mouth, resulting in milk and Cheerios on his pajama shirt and the floor.

"I'm not sad, Frankie," I said, as I took a paper towel and wiped up the mess. "Why do you say so?"

"Because you mouth is like this," he said, and he took his fingers and pulled the corners of his mouth down. I laughed and went back into my bedroom.

Later that day, me, my mom, Frankie, Sophie, and Charlie were walking across the street in midtown to meet the rest of the Jonas family for lunch.

"Where are we going, mommy?" asked Sophie as the lights changed.

"Ruby Maynard's," my mom said as three pairs of hands reached out to grab hers as we crossed the street.

I opened my eyes widely. "That really fancy place on 42nd street? That's like the hottest and most expensive and well-known restaurant in New York City! You need to be really important to get in."

"But my brothers are important." Frankie said. "I've been there 6 times."

"Oh," I said. "You're one lucky 7-year old.

As we arrived at the restaurant we were led to a table for 10. I felt a feeling of warmth and happiness when I saw the family there."

"Hi, sweetie!" Mrs. Jonas ran up to hug me. "My, how big and pretty you've gotten! Come, take a seat."

"Hi, Mr. Jonas," I said as I saw him.

"Hi, Anna," he said, and I also gave him a hug. "The boys are over there. You can sit next to them."

I went into a booth next to Kevin, which was right next to Joe and across from Nick. "Hi, guys," I said as I sat down. "Long time no see."

"How was the Yankees game yesterday?" Joe asked with a smile on his face.

"Oh, it was a blast. Thanks, Nick." I sipped my water and looked up at him. "Didn't you tell them about it?"  
"Oh please, he was talking about it for hours," said Kevin. He pointed under his eyes. "See these bags under my eyes? This is from lack of sleep last night because Nick was just talking and talking about the game. He finally stopped when the lady in the room next to us called the concierge and told our room to stop making so much noise."

"Oh, I'm glad you enjoyed it, too," I said, as I looked at Nick. But he was too busy twirling his straw in his water to see how fast he could make his ice cubes spin around.

"Yeah, did you see the newspaper?" Joe said. "Ha, those people don't have a clue."

"Oh, you saw that too?" I said. I hoped I wasn't blushing. "I'm so sorry about that. You guys know it isn't true. I don't know how those people found out we were there."

"Oh, it's ok," Nick said. He had stopped twirling his ice cubes. "It happens all the time. I guess it's my fault; I should have worn a hat or something to hide."

"Hide? They're not wild animals, Nick," Kevin said,

"Yes, they are," Nick replied.

"Ah, I don't mind it that much," Joe said. "It impresses the ladies…" he stopped short when he saw a very pretty young waitress pass by. "I'll be back in a sec," he said, standing up, and he ran off to pursue his new love interest, which would probably change in the next 5 minutes.

The rest of the lunch was fun, despite the flashes of the few photographers' cameras, and soon enough we were walking outside. "Hey, do you want to see our tour bus? It's parked only a couple of blocks away from here," said Kevin.

"Really? Can I?" I said.

"Sure," said Joe. "Common."

I quickly asked my mom, and then we walked over a couple of blocks down. And then there it was, a giant bus that had the words 'Jonas Brothers' written across it. The entire bus was graffitied with phone numbers, names, and messages declaring their want to marry one of the boys or statements saying how obsessed they were as a fan. A couple of girls had Sharpies in their hands and were in the middle of scrawling something on the bus, but when they saw us approaching they just stood there in shock. One of them actually fainted on the road, but her friend sprinkled her with some water from her water bottle and she began to waken. After having their arms signed by boys with their Sharpies, they quickly ran away and disappeared. I was amazed. These boys were like gods to some people.

"Come on inside," Nick said, and he led to up the steps. I gasped when my eyes saw what they saw.

Inside, there was a kitchen, with glass and marble countertops and all, with booths to sit in and a table with four secured chairs around it. In the next level were some beds that had small plasma screen TVs fitted inside, with a bathroom nearby. At the end of the bus was a sitting area with another TV, more booths, and numerous instruments and recording devices set up around the place, as well as some of Frankie's Care Bears and action figure heroes. Again, I was amazed.

"Pretty cool, huh?" Nick said as he reached inside to mini fridge to grab a Redbull.

"Pretty cool? This is amazing," I said. "You're so lucky that you get to be in here so much."

"Nah," said Nick. "I prefer home. We haven't been there much. But we're going to be staying there for a while when we finish this tour and start recording the show."

I went over to the keyboard and let my fingers slide along it. "Do you still play?" said Joe, appearing from nowhere with a popsicle in his hand.

"Yeah," I said shyly. "But I'm not like, a prodigy at it or anything."

"I remember that you used to be great at it," said Kevin, who came out of the kitchen. "I can also remember that you could sing really well too, right?"

"Oh, I don't know…"

"Hey, play and sing a song for us!"

I immediately tensed up and my stomach turned. I didn't like singing in front of people; I was so self-conscience about it that I was even afraid of singing when I was alone just in case anyone suddenly appeared and heard me. And I definitely couldn't in front of these musical geniuses. "Umm, how 'bout another time?"

But it was too late. Someone pushed me onto the stool and picked up my hands over the keys. "But I don't have anything to play," I said hopefully. "Oh well, call me back when you have something…"

"Wait," Nick quickly turned around and disappeared. He then came back with a piece of paper in his hand. It was a piece of music, with lyrics written underneath in Nick's curly handwriting. "I wrote it not too long ago…I was going to show it to Joe and Kevin first, but I want you to be the first person to show it to them."

"Ok," I said nervously, and I placed the music in front of me, and turned to see all three of them sitting on their own seats, waiting expectantly and anxiously. I dreadingly turned around, looked at the music, and started playing the first chords. I was enjoying myself until I started seeing the lyrics coming up, and I wanted to stop it, but it was too late; my mouth was already opening and my vocal chords had already started vibrating. So I just sang.

I just went through the song, and even though it was my first time playing it, I felt like I had played it for years. I felt an immediate connection to it, and by the time the second verse came, I had put all my heart into it. I wasn't concentrating too much on making everything perfect, I just wanted it to be…different.

When I played the last notes, I took my hands off the keys and realized I was trembling. I turned around to see their reactions. They didn't say anything. It must have been awful.

I tried to speak, but it wouldn't come out. It finally did when I said, "I know it wasn't very good… I just –"

"No," said Joe. "That was amazing." His popsicle had melted and it was dripping floor, making a little orange puddle. But he didn't seem to notice.

"Really?" I said, my face brightening. I hoped I didn't look too pleased.

He nodded.

I spent the next three days with the Jonas Brothers. And to tell the truth, it was the most exciting couple of days that I had experienced in a while. We went to the park, the movies, played games on their tour bus, went rollerblading, and much more. Of course, nothing could go smoothly due to the crazy photographers and reporters, and the screaming girls who looked like they would die if one Jonas gave them so much as an eye glance. But I thoroughly enjoyed it overall, and I was sad when it was the last night before they went to Boston to continue their tour.

On that night, we were walking around the South Seaport, eating potato chips. By "we", I mean just Nick and I. Joe and Kevin had gone inside a store to buy some new shoes since a seagull had unfortunately dropped one on them. We walked in silence as we went towards the fresh water and looked at the sun that was just beginning to set. I don't even know why we weren't talking; I feel like in the past couple of days I was feeling more and more awkward around Nick, and I didn't know why. Not like our friendship had weakened, because it hadn't: in fact, it was stronger. But now I felt that everything that came out of my mouth that was towards him was just…awkward for him, and whatever came out of his mouth was awkward for me. So, we just walked in silence.

"So, have you enjoyed being in the city for the past couple of days?" I said, deciding to break the tension. "It must be nice to take such a long break."

"Yeah, it's been a blast," said Nick. "I can't believe we bumped into you here, you know?"

"Yeah," I said, looking at the ground for some strange reason.

"Hey, me and Joe and Kevin were thinking…" said Nick, looking up.

"What?"

A couple of seagulls flew away in fright when I shrieked as Nick responded. Just then, Joe and Kevin came out with shopping bags in their hands. "Where is she going?" Kevin asked as they saw me running towards the streets.

"She's going to ask," said Nick, smiling.

The elevator was taking too long, so I decided to take the stairs instead. I ran up to the 17th floor as quickly as I could before I ran out of time. Once I was there I turned the knob and burst through the door.

"I thought you meant to back at 7," said my mom as she looked up at me from her magazine; I was panting and sweating. "And what happened to you?"  
"Mom, I need to ask you something," I said, trying to catch my breath. I sat down in the chair next to her. "Um, I don't know how to put this, but...the boys asked me to continue on their tour with them."

"What?" said my mom. "I'm not sure, darling…"

Disappointment flooded me. "But, we're not doing anything for the rest of the summer. And besides, it's only for 17 days."

"So it's only for 17 days?" she asked.

"Um, well…" I said hesitantly. "They want me to come back to L.A. with them after their tour until the end of the summer."

I smiled, hoping that would reassure her.

"I don't know…" she said. "I don't feel like you're ready to go across to the other side of the country for 2 months and come into things you don't want to, and you'll be all alone to do it."

"But I can do it," I pleaded. "What could happen?"

My mom sighed. "I'm sorry, but no,"

"Please? Just think about it? Or at least until 11, because that's when they're leaving."

"I don't know, Anna," she said, and went back to her magazine.

I walked to my room, but each step I took seemed heavy. It just wasn't fair. For some strange reason, even though I had only seen them for only a couple of days, I desperately wanted to go on tour with these guys. But not just for the Jonas Brothers…I felt that I needed a challenge, I needed to overcome and accomplish something that I wasn't quite sure of yet. For the past couple of years I felt dry, like I was lacking something that made me, I don't know, different. Not like I was already, because I was, but in a bad way. I mean, good different. I needed this tour; I think it would be the best thing for me. But the time for me to grow up would have to be another time.

I sat down on my bed and started playing on my keyboard. Just playing chords, anything that emulated my thoughts. I looked up at the clock. Four hours had passed, and it was 10:03. Then it was 10:14. Then 10:32. They were probably packing their things now. 10:39. Now they were dragging their bags out of the hotel onto the bus. 10:44. Probably setting down on the bus, the driver getting ready to put his hands on the wheel…

I was interrupted when my mom burst through the door. Without speaking, she went over to my closet and went to the top shelf, and brought down a suitcase. She tossed it onto my bed. "Get your things ready," she said. "They're leaving in 15 minutes."

I was so surprised and excited that I fell off the bed. "Thank you, thank you!" I cried as I squeezed her to death with my hugs. "You're the best mother ever!"

"Hurry," she said smiling, and left. I quickly grabbed everything I could find and stuffed it into the suitcase. When I looked up, it was 10:56. I ran to the living room, where my mom, Sophie and Charlie were waiting.

"I love you all. I promise that I'll call often, and I'll be back after Labor Day, ok?" I hugged all of them tightly. "If you find yourself sinking down, don't let it," she said. "Be strong."

"Thanks," I said. I kissed her quickly. "Don't worry, I'll be fine."

I got a little emotional as I closed the door behind me, but I looked at the time on my watch and realized that I didn't have time for that. What was right in front of me was what I needed to prepare for, because I will be great.

Once I was out the door, I ran as fast as I could down to 1st Avenue, where I know the Jonas Brothers were stopping for gas before going on the FDR towards Boston. I looked at my watch. 11:00. Hopefully not too late. It wasn't too hard to find the tour bus, which was by the gas station…and turning around! No! I ran after it, and then, after maybe 30 seconds of going, it suddenly stopped. Maybe they noticed me, then? Just then the doors opened, and the bus driver got around, "I'm going in just to get to buy a Sprite, ok, boys?" Then he went into the gas station store. I breathed a sigh of relief. I lifted up my suitcase as I went up the stairs, since the doors were still open, and could here a guitar playing and talking. I put my suitcase up on a rack where there were other suitcases, and walked over towards the last part of the bus, and I pushed back a curtain, and there they were. "Hi, guys," I said. I suddenly realized that my little surprising act might have looked a little stupid. I hoped not.

"You made it!" Kevin said, as he got up to hug me. "Yeah, I said, rubbing my hands together uncomfortably. "I hoped it wasn't too sudden, the decision was kinda last minute…" I said. "I mean, my mom's decision was last minute, not mine. I wanted to go the second I was told."

"Well, it's great you're here," said Joe. "Come, sit, we were just watching some TV." He turned on the TV, and everyone sat back down on the seats. I could have sworn that before I came in they were playing music and talking, but maybe I was hearing that from the TV they were watching.

Joe switched the channel onto Leona Lewis' music video for Bleeding Love.

"Man," I said as she danced around in her silver Dolce and Gabbana dress. "That dress is absolutely gorgeous. I would do anything to have that."

"Yeah, it is nice, isn't it," said Nick.

Just then, Mrs. Jonas came it. "Welcome aboard, Anna," she said held a sleepy Frankie by the hand, who had on fire truck pajamas on. "Your mother called me when you left. These seats pull out into a bed, so you wouldn't mind sleeping here, would you? I'm afraid all the bunks are taken."

"No, it's perfect," I smiled. "Everything's perfect."

I lay back on the couch and put my hands behind my bed. "It will be so much fun to have another person on the bus," Joe said. "Oh, thanks," I said. "This is…amazing. But why did you guys invite me? I didn't think I was that special."

"Because you're a good friend," said Kevin. "I hope you'll enjoy it…tours can be a bit stressful sometimes."

"I think everything will be fine," I said, "I just hope I don't get in the way too much, you know?"

"Don't worry, you won't," Kevin said. "We actually need you for something." He winked at Joe.

"Huh?" I said. But I decided to leave that alone.

The ground shook a bit as the bus rumbled along the highway, but it was soothing, not disturbing. I lay on my bed, watching the darkened windows zoom past various trees and things, just thinking. The clock next to me read that it was 1:45. I had the urge to go over to the keyboard or guitar and play something, but I knew that that would just wake up everyone and make them annoyed. So I just lay there, but then I heard something from the second section, where the Jonas family slept. Nick appeared at the curtain.

"Sorry to wake you," he said. He was wearing flannel pajama bottoms and a sleeve-less undershirt. "'Couldn't sleep."

"No, it's okay, I was awake too," I said, trying to take my gaze off of his arms.

"I know, the bus can be a bit difficult to fall asleep on," he said, reaching into the mini fridge to get a Redbull. He then sat down on the seats next to me.

"No, I don't mind that. I was just thinking,"

"'Bout what?" he said as he took a sip of his drink.

"Oh, I don't even know."

"Hey, you wanna watch some TV?" he said. He reached for the remote and turned it on, quickly putting it on a low but audible volume, and then he went over to shut the curtain so that no one could wake up.

"Hey, thanks for inviting me out here," I said as he was flipping channels. "You're really didn't have to,"

"No, it was a pleasure," he said. "Hey, remember this show?" It was a cartoon that we used to watch.

"Oh, yeah," I said. "Kinda creeped me out, but it was fun to watch."

"Yeah," he said, laughing softly. "It's kinda weird, but it's the only thing to watch at 2 in the morning."

"You must really like being on tour then, huh?" I said. I felt like nowadays it was harder and harder to talk to him, because you had to be the one starting the conversations in order to squeeze information out of him in order to further pursue in conversation.

"Yeah," he said. "But it can be tiring." He then picked up a sock from the floor. "Ugh. I hate it when they're messy like this."

"It's ok," I said. "But I only really hate it when people mess up things that I organized or just cleaned up."

"Hey, me too!" Nick said, and for 15 minutes we talked about how we liked things to be organized and our other pet peeves. It was a strange conversation, but it was a conversation. Suddenly as Nick took another sip of his Redbull, he squeezed the can, which made the drink spray into the air landing on both of us. "Hey!" I said, and as he was laughing I ran over to the mini fridge, got out a Diet Coke and squeezed the can. "Oops," I said as a second fountain sprayed all over us. "My bad." He sprayed me back with his Redbull, and sprayed him with my Coke. Our spraying fight ended when we both ran out. Nick looked down at his soaking shirt and arms. He licked both fingers that had different drinks on them, but then made a face. "I love both of these, but they taste nasty together." I laughed, and for a while there was silence.

Nick yawned after a while. "Boy, that Redbull isn't keeping me awake at all," he said. I was about to answer when I felt my eyes drooping to. As I was trying to keep them open, I jumped as I felt Nick's arm rest against my shoulder. I turned to look at him; he was asleep. His mouth was wide open, and his neck was resting back. I was about to push him off, as it wouldn't be right for him to be sleeping so close to me, but I was conquered when my eyes closed, my brain shut down, and I too fell asleep.


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

It felt like only seconds had passed when I felt a stream of sunlight hit my face and I heard noises in the kitchen. I groaned as I turned heavily my aching back and legs, and I realized they ached because instead of sleeping on the bed last night I had slept on the seats next to it. Why again? My question was answered when I turned over to see Nick, still sound asleep, breathing in deeply. His arm was somewhat around me. Panic flooded through me. What would happen if someone walked in and though something had happened? How could I wake him up to get rid of him? I was so tired and comfortable that I didn't want to get up, but I knew I had to.

I went over to the bed and lay down there, hoping that my story saying how we stayed up and talked and we slept on separate beds could be believed. Hopefully.

Just then Nick woke up. "Hello," he said as he got up and sat back. "I can't believe I fell asleep on this thing."

"Ugh," I said as I felt my arms and neck. "I'm all sticky from those little fountains we produced."

Nick laughed. "There's a shower over there. I'll take one after you."

I went towards the shower with a sigh of relief. At least no one had noticed.

The rest of day was actually a lot of fun. We had already arrived in Boston, so we went to a couple of the sights and went bowling. Nick became a lot more talkative during all of it and I began to enjoy myself more and more. I was worried sometimes when I felt saw parazzi that another rumored and untrue story would be revealed in the tabloids the next day, but the others assured me that the best thing to do was to ignore it.

The show in Boston that night was spectacular. The boys did flips, played guitar solos, had fire and things shooting out of nowhere, the noise was intense and so was the energy. Unlike the last concert, I sat backstage, and played Sorry with Frankie. We did this from city to city: Washington D.C., New Haven, Raleigh, Atlantic City…and so many more that I couldn't even remember their names. But I enjoyed myself so much.

Our last stop was Miami. We were going to have the concert there, then stay there for one more day for a charity thing before heading back to L.A. When I heard that we were going to Florida, I immediately remembered Claire. I hadn't called her in weeks! I picked up my cell phone and quickly pressed her speed dial number.

"Hey, Claire, what's up?" I said as I sat down on in a chair by the kitchen table.

"Anna!" Claire said. "I'm in the airport leaving from Florida."  
"Oh, that's a shame, because I'm heading down there at this moment."

"When's your flight?"

"Actually, I'm going by bus."

"Huh? It'll take you, like, forever to get there."

"Well, you're not going to believe this, but at this moment, I'm sitting in the Jonas Brothers' tour bus, riding down to Miami for their final concert."

Claire shrieked. "No way! How long have you been on the bus for?"

"About 3 weeks."

"You were on tour with the Jonas Brothers and you never told me?" Claire shrieked again.

"I'm sorry, I…forgot." I said. "So, what are you doing right now?"

"Oh, just reading this magazine entirely devoted to Joe Jonas," Claire sighed. "He is _so _hot."

"But I thought you liked Nick?" I said, keeping my voice low so no one could hear me.

"Nah, I'm over him, Joe's my man now," Claire said dreamily.

"Ok…" I said, and then I saw a road sign that was pointing towards Miami. "Hey Claire, I've gotta go, but I'll talk to you later, 'kay?"

"'Kay," said Claire. "Tell Joe to give me a call. Bye."

Just then Nick came into the room. "Hey Anna, we're going to go to the beach, ok? So grab a bathing suit."

15 minutes later we pulled up to a beach, where the boys all put some shades on to somewhat hide their identity. "Oh wait," I said, "I forgot a towel. You guys go on ahead of me, I'll be there in a second."

"You sure?"

"Yeah, just one sec." I quickly turned around and went back up to the bus. I went over to the bunks and pulled out a towel that I had stuffed on a shelf near Nick's bunk. As a pulled it out, a small box came out with it and crashed onto the floor. Pieces of paper flew everywhere. Groaning, I was just about to put them all back when something caught my eye. It was an envelope that said "To Nick, from Anna". What? When had I ever sent him a letter? I looked around me to make sure no one was there, and I slowly started to lift the letter that was inside it, but then I heard someone get on the bus.

"Hi," said Nick. "I was just getting the picnic basket." He looked at me funny; I must have had a strange look on my face. "You okay?"

"Yeah," I said. "Common, let's go."

The beach was fun, but I couldn't help being confused and bothered over that letter. I knew it definitely wasn't from me, so who was it from? Another person named Anna? And no matter who it was from, why was he keeping it on a shelf near his bed? At his time I was sitting on a towel on the sand, playing with Frankie and his toy trucks while the boys were swimming in the water. My confusion was halted to a stop when something caught my eye.

Nick was getting out of the water.

His stomach was toned and brown, as lines of water were running down it all the way to his feet. The drips of ocean water curved in and out as they went down the lines of his abs, and his hair was wet and straight from the top, and started developing into curls as it went further down. The sun shone on his glittering bare skin as he walked out of the water like a lifeguard from Baywatch; cool and carefree. And I have to admit, the scene was breathtaking. And this scene was walking right towards me.

I moved over on the blanket as he sat down next to me. "Hey," he said. He looked at me when I forgot to respond. "Oh, hey," I said. He suddenly leaned over and tickled me on my stomach, my most ticklish spot. "Stop!" I managed to breathe in between spastic giggles and screams. But I didn't want it to stop.

Later that night the boys had their final concert, and their loudest concert. Kevin suddenly came running out. "We did it, man!" he sad as he slapped Joe on the back. "We're done!" I smiled at them, but my body was suddenly thrown back. When I looked up, I saw that Nick was hugging me tightly with sweat running down his pink cheeks. "Oh, sorry," he said after he heard me muffle something. Big Rob came out. "Hey guys, it's time for the meet and greet." We all got up and went over to a table, where the boys sat down behind it and I stood in the corner. I could see the line getting shorter and shorter, and when the last person finally had their dreams come true, a new group came in. Kevin turned to me. "They're a group of kids with diabetes. They came to support Nick's charity."

"Nick has a charity?" I said. I didn't even know he had the heart to even think of donating to a charity let alone have one of his own. But that changed once I saw what I saw.

A group of little girls and boys came up shyly one by one and shook each of the boys' hands and coyly smiled. There was a little girl lagging behind that didn't seem to want to come. Nick suddenly got up, and took her hand and lead her towards the table, then hoisted her up on it and gave her a hug. My stomach dropped: I was either touched or it was from not having food since lunch, or I was just surprised.

"Do you have diabetes?" he said to her. She nodded. "Hey, you're going to be alright, ok?" he said. She smiled a wide, toothless smile, and then hopped down to follow her group.

I went up to Nick afterwards. "Hey, that was a nice thing you did there." He blushed and looked down at the ground. "Yeah."

"Hey, want to get something to eat?" he said.

"Sure," I said. "Whereabouts?"

"Big Rob?" Nick said, looking at the big rock, where Frankie was attempting to punch him up with no success. "You know anywhere where me and my best friend can eat?" My stomach dropped for the second time that night.

"Uh, there's a nice pizza place somewhere," he said, ignoring Frankie's furious hand thrashes. "I can take you there, if you want." He got up and started walking towards a door, and Nick and I followed him.

I didn't know whether to speak or not, but I did anyway. "Since when are you my best friend?" I teased, but I really meant it as a question.

"Uh, since I met you I guess," he smiled. "Why, want me to pick a new one?"

"Sure, go do that," I said, trying to hide my pleasure. He hadn't acknowledged the fact that I was a friend let alone a best one until now since I had seen him in the last couple of weeks. "But there is no one better than me." He laughed, and he hooked his arm with mine and we went outside. We ignored the flashes of the cameras, because we would just tell them we were just friends.


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Nick and I ploughed our way through the sea of flashes and annoying people, and made our way into the restaurant, where we sat down at the nearest table. After we ordered, Nick said, "So how's life?"

I laughed. "So far, a lot of fun."

"Good. Wait till we get to California. You'll have more than fun there."

"What do you mean by that?" I asked.

He started playing with his fork and made a cunning grin. "You'll see."

"I'm excited. The last time I went to California was, like, 5 years ago and it was only for 2 days."

"Well, this time you'll be staying for a whole month."

"Yeah," I said, tracing my fingers along my plate. "Back to school."

"Why, don't you like school?" he asked, because my tone was skeptical.

I sighed. "New school, new people, new and more changes…" I looked up at him. "Just a lot to get used to."

"Well, I bet everyone will like you, 'cause you're fun, smart, and nice, and different."

I smiled. "Yeah, definitely…different."

Just then, a girl came up asking for an autograph and picture. After that was over, I said, "How do you like it that every girl in America is in love with you?"

"I'm flattered," he said, leaning back and putting his hands behind his head.

I laughed. "No, seriously."

"I'm flattered."

"Well, you're one lucky guy, then."

There was silence for a couple of minutes. When I looked up at my pizza, Nick seemed to be in serious thought. He suddenly said, "How's life?"

I laughed. "Didn't you ask me that, like, 20 minutes ago? But I'm good, thanks."

He smiled. "No, I mean, what is life, you know? What if you're meant to be doing something and you're meant to figure out what that is? Like, what if you're meant to accomplish something?" he looked up at my astonished face. "Oh yeah. I can be deep."

"No, it's not that…" I said, "It's just that that's what I think everyday to myself, too."

"Really?" he said. "We're more like each other than I thought." He gave me a high-five. "I like people who can be deep."

Suddenly, I felt like I could tell him everything. "I don't know, its just…sometimes there's a part of me that thinks that everything's laid right in front of me and I just have to keep on going…or there's another part that says that I'm missing something that I want and need to find that will make me feel challenged yet just feel…" I searched for the word in my head. "Amazing. And will bring out the best in me and lead me in the right directions." After I finished my mini-speech I realized that I might have just sounded like a total idiot and said a whole load of crap that made no sense.

"That…was beautiful." Nick said. I laughed at his humor. "And I swear I'm constantly thinking the same thing."

"Who are you and what have you done with Nick Jonas?" I laughed.

"I was and still am here," he said, a little confused.

"I just didn't know you were like this."

He tried to think of a good comeback, but ended up saying, "Well, I didn't know you could be like that."

"Well, it's just that not many guys I know are like that," I said. "Or girls. Or really anybody I know. Actually, I think you might be the only person I know who is like that besides me."

Nick stroked his chin. "Once again, I'm flattered."

We spent the rest of the evening laughing and talking. I didn't realize that Nick had a really good sense of humor: he could do funny impersonations; he made sarcastic remarks, and spoke in an intelligent and funny way. He also had a deeper mind than I thought he had, and I was truly surprised yet glad to find someone who thought that way, because I thought I was the only one who had such a weird mind. And he wasn't as quiet as he seemed in front of other people; one someone gets to know him more, Nick actually talks a lot. And I was starting to like him more and more.

The next day we all woke up to board a plane to L.A. I was for some stupid reason expecting to go on a normal plane, but then I remembered these boys were the Jonas Brothers when I was faced with an expensive private jet. The ride was long, but enjoyable and fun.

The second we landed, I had no time to look at the blue skies and palm trees, because Joe and Kevin pulled me by the arms off the plane and into a black SUV.

"Common, we have to go now, or we'll be late," Kevin said as he told his driver where they were going.

"Where are we going?" I said in response, but Joe put a finger up to his mouth with a grin on his face. 15 minutes later, we pulled up in front of a large glass building.

"Over here," Nick said, and he put his hand in mine. A shiver went up my spine, and I don't know whether it was the fact that his hand was in mine or the air conditioning was on too high. Nick then put his hand over my eyes, and started to lead me somewhere. He then stopped.

"And here we are," he removed his hand from my eyes, and I looked around to see where we were. It was a recording studio.

"What's this?" I said, still very confused.

"This, my dear, is where you're going to record your song," Mr. Jonas came into the room from the same door that Nick must have led me through, with Joe and Kevin following behind.

"What?" I squeaked with fright, surprise, and excitement.

"After we heard you sing the song that Nick wrote on the tour bus last month we decided it would be worth a shot have you record a demo," said Joe. "So we fixed up the song and brought you here, because we think you have a chance of making it to the music industry."

"Really?" I said, looking around in astonishment. They all nodded.

"Ok," I croaked. "What should I do?"

"You just go inside that booth, and there's the lyrics over there, and we'll give you a heads up on when to sing, ok?" Mr. Jonas said as he sat down by the controls pad.

I nodded and walked over to the booth, stumbling a bit on my way, and I went over to a stand where there was a pair of headphones and sheets of music.

"You ready?" Kevin said. I nodded, but that was just because I felt my head was falling off. I wasn't ready yet. But it was too late, and music started to play into my headphones; it was the song, but with other instruments and beats. So I just started to sing.

When it was over, I looked up for the first time at the Jonases. They were clapping and clapping, and their faces were excited and amazed. "That was amazing!" Mr. Jonas said. "I don't even think we have to do it again; it was perfect!"

"Thank you," I said shyly. "But the credit really goes to you guys."

"No, thank you," said Kevin. "Now we have to show this to Bill, the studio manager."

After some time, a tall, balding man came out with a disc in his hands. "Are you Anna?' I nodded. "Anna, this is great. You are great. You are amazing. We would like to have this song released as a single from your name?"

I nearly fainted. "Are you serious?"

"Anna, in Hollywood you always have to tell the truth."

I let out a scream. Then I went out to hug all if them. When he hugged Nick, he said, "I knew you could do it." I blushed. Why was I blushing?

"Hey, Dad," I tall, blond boy about my age came into the room through a door. And he wasn't that bad looking. "What's up?"

"Anna, this is my son Jake," said Bill. "He likes to come to the studio when he's bored."

"Well, it's not boring when there's pretty ladies around," said Jake, looking at me. I must have turned a purple-blackish color with my blushing. He then turned to the boys. "Hey, guys, what's up?"

"Hey, Jake," said Nick quietly as he shook his hand. "How are you?"

"I'm great, man," said Jake. "Well, I have to go, now. Bye, Anna."

"Well, it's getting late," said Mrs. Jonas as she looked at her watch. "We need to get home in time for dinner and to show Anna around. We have a long day ahead of us tomorrow."

When we pulled up in front of the Jonas' new house, or that's what it seemed to be in my eyes, I loved it almost as much as the one on Wyckoff. Unlike the other houses surrounding it, which were large and expensive and snobby-looking, this one was small but sweet and clean.

After a quick tour of the house, which made me pleased to see that most of the furniture in it was the same from their old house, the boys lead me to where I would sleep.

"There's a guesthouse over there where you will stay," Kevin explained. "It's small, but it's got everything you need and I hope it's enough for you,"

"No, I love it!" I said as we walked inside. I sat down on the couch and sighed. "This is my first day here and look at how much as happened."

"Yeah, well, it's going to get a lot more fun, trust me," said Joe. "Parties, premieres, television tapings…it's going to be a blast," he smiled at my glowing and surprised face. "But don't get too caught up in it, because Hollywood can be dangerous."

"Oh, please. My mom said the same thing." I stopped. "Mom! I haven't called her, in like, 3 weeks!"

I quickly ran over to the phone and dialed my home number. "Anna, do you know how long it's been?" my mom said as she picked it up.

"Oh, hi, mom, nice to see you too," I said sarcastically.

"No, honey, it's just that it's been so long."

"But so much has happened!" I said excitedly. "Mommy, I did a song and it's going to be recorded and it's going to be released as soon as Thursday and…"

"Wait, what?" my mom said. "No time to make jokes, Anna, I'm tired because it's one in the morning here."

"No, I'm serious!" I said. "It's all true, ask Denise or someone."

"I don't even know what to say!" my mom said. "Darling, I'm so proud of you! You're going to have such a good time!"

"Yeah, I know I will. Everything will be perfect." I said. At least that's what I thought then.


End file.
